Search results matching tags 'Visual Studio' and 'SQL Server Data Tools'http://sqlblog.com/search/SearchResults.aspx?o=DateDescending&tag=Visual+Studio,SQL+Server+Data+Tools&orTags=0Search results matching tags 'Visual Studio' and 'SQL Server Data Tools'en-USCommunityServer 2.1 SP2 (Build: 61129.1)Connected development in SSDT versus SSMShttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/archive/2013/03/19/connected-development-in-ssdt-versus-ssms.aspxTue, 19 Mar 2013 16:28:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:48314jamiet<p>When you install the database projects template of SSDT you get SQL Server Object Explorer (SSOX) installed as well. SSOX is a pane within Visual Studio and is the main enabler of the Connected Development experience that the SSDT team have attempted to provide.</p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/SNAGHTML15dc3f62_18DB391E.png"><img title="SNAGHTML15dc3f62" style="border-top:0px;border-right:0px;border-bottom:0px;border-left:0px;display:inline;" border="0" alt="SNAGHTML15dc3f62" width="335" height="118" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/SNAGHTML15dc3f62_thumb_0C6D15F5.png"></a></p> <p>SSOX provides some really cool capabilities that are not in SQL Server Management Studio (I hope to blog about them in the near future). In theory these capabilities make it possible for a database developer to spend all their time in SSDT (i.e. Visual Studio) thus making SSMS a pureplay DBA tool (this does of course depend on your definition of both a database developer and a DBA, but I’m not getting into that debate here).</p> <p>With that in mind I have spent a few days trying to work without SSMS, preferring to live wholly inside Visual Studio instead. By and large I was able to do everything I needed to do from within Visual Studio however there were a few nuances about the experience that kept pushing me back to SSMS, I detail those nuances below.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <hr> <h3>Server groups</h3> <p>SSOX combines the functions of SSMS’s Object Explorer and Registered Servers pane. I don’t mind either way of working but it does mean that there is no ability to group servers in SSOX like you can in the Registered Servers pane</p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/image_568820DA.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;display:inline;border-top-width:0px;" border="0" alt="image" width="244" height="97" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/image_thumb_4E907E78.png"></a>&nbsp;<a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/image_0977B142.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;display:inline;border-top-width:0px;" border="0" alt="image" width="244" height="230" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/image_thumb_6C8E8C6C.png"></a> </p> <h3>F6</h3> <p>In SSMS I regularly use the F6 keyboard shortcut to jump between the query, results &amp; messages panes of a query window. No such keyboard shortcut exists in SSDT and they’ve already canned <a target="_blank" href="https://connect.microsoft.com/sqlserver/feedback/details/780990/ssdt-f6-to-move-between-panes-in-a-query-window#tabs">my request on Connect to get this fixed</a> (even though it laughably has status “closed as fixed”).</p> <p>&nbsp;<i>UPDATE: See the comments below where Brett Gerhardi informed me of a different keyboard shortcut that does the same thing as F6. Actually its not quite the same, if you have multiple resultsets in your results pane then the behaviour is slightly different to F6 in SSMS - but that's not an issue you'll hot frequently.</i></p> <h3>Change Connection</h3> <p>The context menu in SSMS provides the ability to change a connection as well as connect and disconnect:</p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/image_72693005.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;display:inline;border-top-width:0px;" border="0" alt="image" width="546" height="115" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/image_thumb_11ABD6D9.png"></a> </p> <p>SSDT doesn’t have change connection and believe me, you don’t know how much you use a feature until its not there:</p> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/image_09B43477.png"><img title="image" style="border-left-width:0px;border-right-width:0px;border-bottom-width:0px;display:inline;border-top-width:0px;" border="0" alt="image" width="438" height="58" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/image_thumb_28F6DB4A.png"></a> </p> <p>There’s also no hotkey to jump to “Connection” on the context menu like there is in SSMS (“C”) and I find that annoying too.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><hr>Those were the main annoyances that forced me back to SSMS. The lack of F6 was a major bugbear for me as I am a big keyboard shortcut junkie. If such things don’t bother you then you may be able to live in Visual Studio quite happily. If you have any similar experiences to share I’d be keen to read them.<p>&nbsp;</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/jamiet">@Jamiet</a></p>Highlight Word add-in for Visual Studio 2010 [SSDT]http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/archive/2012/09/19/highlight-word-add-in-for-visual-studio-2010-ssdt.aspxWed, 19 Sep 2012 11:56:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:45272jamiet<p>I’ve just been alerted by my colleague Kyle Harvie to a Visual Studio 2010 add-in that should prove very useful if you are an SSDT user. Its simply called <a target="_blank" href="http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/4b92b6ad-f563-4705-8f7b-7f85ba3cc6bb/">Highlight all occurrences of selected word</a> and does exactly what it says on the tin, you highlight a word and it shows all other occurrences of that word in your script:</p> <blockquote> <p><a href="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/image_07C7270D.png"><img style="background-image:none;border-bottom:0px;border-left:0px;padding-left:0px;padding-right:0px;display:inline;border-top:0px;border-right:0px;padding-top:0px;" title="image" border="0" alt="image" width="623" height="263" src="http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/image_thumb_332B4807.png"></a></p> </blockquote> <p>There’s a limitation for .sql files (<a target="_blank" href="http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/4b92b6ad-f563-4705-8f7b-7f85ba3cc6bb/view/Reviews">which I have reported</a>) where the highlighting doesn’t work if the word is wrapped in square brackets but what the heck, its free, it takes about ten seconds to install….install it already!</p> <p><a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/jamiet">@Jamiet</a></p>SQL Server 2012 : The Data Tools installer is now availablehttp://sqlblog.com/blogs/aaron_bertrand/archive/2011/11/21/sql-server-2012-the-data-tools-installer-is-now-available.aspxMon, 21 Nov 2011 15:18:00 GMT21093a07-8b3d-42db-8cbf-3350fcbf5496:39908AaronBertrand<p>Last week when RC0 was released, the updated installer for "Juneau" (SQL Server Data Tools) was not available. Depending on how you tried to get it, you either ended up on a blank search page, or a page offering the CTP3 bits. Important note: the CTP3 Juneau bits are not compatible with SQL Server 2012 RC0.</p><p>If you already have Visual Studio 2010 installed (meaning Standard/Pro/Premium/Ultimate), you will need to install <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23691" title="http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=23691" target="_blank">Service Pack 1</a> before continuing. You can get to the installer simply by opening Visual Studio, going to File &gt; New &gt; Project, and then choose the option "SQL Server" that appears under the "Other Languages" category (not the "SQL Server" option that appears under the "Database" category):</p><blockquote><p><img src="http://bertrandaaron.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/rc0_juneau_1.png" height="454" width="704">&nbsp;</p></blockquote><p>When you click OK, you will get another dialog that prompts you to install SQL Server Data Tools:</p><blockquote><p><img src="http://bertrandaaron.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/rc0_juneau_2.png" height="260" width="476">&nbsp;</p></blockquote><p>When you click Install, your web browser will be launched on the <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/hh297027" title="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/hh297027" target="_blank">Data Tools "Get Started" page</a>. There you will see a link to "Download SQL Server Data Tools" which will launch or download SSDTSetup.exe:</p><blockquote><p><img src="http://bertrandaaron.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/rc0_juneau_3.png" height="182" width="669">&nbsp;</p></blockquote><p>At this point I would close Visual Studio 2010, because you'll probably be prompted to close it anyway. </p><p>As usual you'll be prompted with a security warning:</p><blockquote><p><img src="http://bertrandaaron.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/juneau_4.png" height="294" width="413">&nbsp;</p></blockquote><p>Next you'll need to agree to the lengthy license terms and conditions:</p><blockquote><p><img src="http://bertrandaaron.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/juneau_5.png" height="549" width="789">&nbsp;</p></blockquote><p>Next it will download LoaclDB (the new dev/Express runtime) and install. For me on multiple installs the Installation Progress bar held at 99% for a noticeable amount of time:</p><blockquote><p><img src="http://bertrandaaron.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/juneau_6.png" height="550" width="789">&nbsp;</p></blockquote><p>With a little bit of luck you should end up at the "Success" screen:</p><blockquote><p><img src="http://bertrandaaron.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/juneau_7.png" height="549" width="789">&nbsp;</p></blockquote><p>Now you can open Visual Studio directly (or from the "SQL Server Data Tools" menu item under All Programs &gt; Microsoft SQL Server 2012 RC0. Choose File &gt; New &gt; Project and again choose "SQL Server" under "Other Languages." The option depicted above has changed to "SQL Server Database Project":</p><blockquote><p><img src="http://bertrandaaron.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/juneau_9.png" height="453" width="705"><br></p></blockquote><p> Click OK. You will find a Toolbox and a familiar Object Explorer on the left, where you can easily create new objects:</p><blockquote><p><img src="http://bertrandaaron.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/juneau_8.png" height="359" width="343">&nbsp;</p></blockquote><p>And now you can go to town developing your project. I haven't tried upgrading a project from CTP3 or from a previous version of "Data Dude." You're on your own there, sorry. <br></p><p>As an aside the "other" SQL Server option under "Database" contains all the old project types that you may not want to use anymore. I hope they straighten this out and consolidate by RTM:</p><blockquote><p><img src="http://bertrandaaron.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/juneau_10.png"><br></p></blockquote><p>If you already had Juneau CTP3 installed, you should be able to install SQL Server Data Tools CTP4 as an upgrade by simply downloading the updated SSDTSetup.exe from the <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/hh297027" title="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/hh297027" target="_blank">"Get Started" page</a>. You may still need to install Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 prior to doing so. For what it's worth, I completely removed SQL Server 2012 CTP3 and Juneau CTP3 before attempting to install the updated bits. If you try an upgrade and come across any issues, please let me know. <br></p><p>You may be wondering why the versioning seems out of cadence - SQL Server is at RC0 while Juneau is at CTP4. This is because SQL Server is feature complete and an upgrade to RTM will now be supported. Juneau is not quite complete (there are still some pending changes before RTM); the naming remains CTP so that folks do not get the impression that an upgrade to RTM will be supported.<br>&nbsp;<br></p>